** Gallery of Stupid came through with another of those horrid elementary school English videos, this one of the black kid using chopsticks. These are what elementary school teachers are required to teach as per the government curriculum. So we're not only trying to teach English but unteach all the garbage they've learned about foreigners and foreign cultures. The centerpiece of one of the lessons is a song about visiting a foreigner's house that goes "Don't take off your shoes / Don't take off your shoes / We don't take off our shoes in the house." If I thought anybody would have gotten it I would have reversed it to "Don't cover your mouth / Don't cover your mouth / We don't cover our mouths when we sneeze."
** Anybody get a Love Pot? No, that's not some bad English I saw on a shirt, a "Love Pot" is apparently a relatively big item this holiday season, if the non-stop commercials are anything to go by. At first I thought it was just a weird decoration, but it's an "aroma humidifier." You can get yours for 29,000 won, with proceeds going to a charity for underprivledged children.

** kimchi-icecream writes about his nightmarish adventure while getting the medical exam required for his E-2 visa.
** Another distasteful cartoon in the Korea Times. At this point it might be more efficient to point out when the cartoon isn't offensive.
** Quest For Cuteness's husband goes on a crappy hagwon interview.
** Otto Silver brings up some good points about all these introductions to quote-unquote Korean culture we get during orientations, meetings, and so on.
I’m not sure if it was the Gyeonggi Education Department or our city’s program, but yesterday we were treated to “Korean Culture”. 5000 years of history and all you have to show is kimchi and pottery?
No doubt the program was sincerely intended to show us more about Korean culture, and the whole day was quite fun, but sometimes I wonder if Koreans actually know what their own culture is all about. Do they not realize that watching TV on tiny screens on the bus/subway, playing games at the PC bang all day and boiling it up at the Jimjil Bang or Baths are as much part of Korean culture as kimchi is? Would it not be more useful for us to learn more about the history and use of these? Show me ONE teacher who has been here more than a month who has not heard about the whole history of kimchi. Now that I think about it, they never tell us that chili is a comparatively recent addition.
Would it not be more useful for the Provence to work on setting up language schools to teach us the Korean Language? Would we not learn more about Korean culture if we were able to experience it directly with the use of said language?
** God, Shelton Baumgartner is pleased with himself.
** The mayor of Suncheon was named the best in the nation by Economy Magazine. At least that's what I think it's saying. From the Suncheon city website, post 102:
The mayor of Suncheon tried to improve the quality of life in all areas such as education, welfare, environment, economy etc., and led the municipal government in establishing the strategic purpose "Korea's Ecological Capital, Suncheon", which is suitable for regional and distinct from other regions.
In addition, keeping the concept of the citizen at the top of the municipal administration, he sought to strengthen the competence of autonomy of the citizen, in particular, he performed, for the first time in the nation, the policy of public health and total welfare service, "Happiness 24 hours with generous people in Suncheon'', hence the high evaluation of the leadership of the administration for citizens was received. His philosophy of regional autonomy, which is managing the transparent administration based on the law and the principle, has also served as an example.
** An interesting discussion going in the comments to this ROK Drop post about the man in the Santa suit who killed eight people before killing himself. Killing people is bad, but the thread's trajectory is right that all the attention will be on the man who killed his kid, without looking at the greedy wife and the legal system that makes divorce---and thus by extension marriage---so ruinous for American men.
** Gwangju is going for the 2015 Universiade, a big international sports competition for college athletes. This May they lost out on the 2013 one, though you might remember Daegu hosted the 2003 Games, the Universiade that featured all those North Korean cheerleaders. Anyway, while searching for that first article I came across one I hadn't seen before: "Painful History Makes Gwangju Unique Candidate." The other two finalists were Vigo, Spain and Kazan, Russian, both located on a notoriously peaceful continent. When I become President of Foreigners, I'm declaring a moratorium on the use of "unique" and "sexy" by Koreans.
** I had planned a post about this year's school festival but I don't think I'll have time to get to it for a while. Suffice it to say I've heard this song way too many times.
Christ. And the English subtitles are driving me nearer the edge. Between them and the Wonder Girls you're raising a whole generation of kids to walk around talking about how pretty they are. Not in subtle terms, either, it's right in the damn refrain. You'll remember Kara began their assault on my sanity with "Rock U." I can't decide which single is worse.
** Ever since YouTube Korea came a lot of videos have been taken down, meaning if you have a blog you'll have to go through and double-check all the videos you've posted (especially music videos and commercials) to make sure they're still working.
** The Party Pooper noticed something that I didn't in those photos of "sexy Santa" Lee Yuri; the dress was clearly designed for someone quite, um, bigger.
Remember, if you vote me President of Foreigners there will be no more "sexy Santas." Jesus Tapdancing Christ, you run a Naver image search for 섹시산타 and it looks like a gallery of animitronics gone bad.
